Here’s why you don’t poo yourself when you fart

A natural mechanism of our body

Sometimes you can’t hold farts in and when you pass the wind you hope not to shart your pants. In most cases, farting doesn’t cause unpredictable results because our body can perfectly distinguish between the need to fart and poop.

Although this mechanism is not perfect, it can discern between solid and liquid avoiding embarrassment. The now well-known Dr. Karan Rajan, famous on TikTok for answering the most unusual medical questions give an explanation about this process.

As explained on The Sun and in a TikTok video, this is called the ‘anal sampling mechanism’ also known as the ‘recto anal inhibitory reflex’ that samples the content of the rectal chamber allowing the rectum to recognize solid, liquid, or gas before being expelled.

“It’s the reason you can safely let out a thunder dumpling without fear of soiling yourself – despite having feces in the rectal canal”, explains the doctor.

“It’s basically a fart gate or anti ‘shart’ brakes”, he adds.

However, when this reflex doesn’t work properly, the person may suffer from incontinence. Nevertheless, the mechanism isn’t perfect, even when you’re healthy.

“It’s better at telling the difference between a solid and non-solid in the sense that sometimes it senses liquid as gas, so be careful if you’re having one of those days”, he added.

It’s crucial to keep in mind that passing wind is completely normal and that some days can happen more than others. However, specialists have previously cautioned that stress may be the cause if you are farting or pooing less than usual.

As Dr. Sarah Garsed said: “People don’t realize the physical impact that stress has on our bodies. Our bowels react to this and we can find ourselves constipated (or sometimes the opposite) because our guts are tense and not working as they should”.

“Our breathing also changes, so we often take in more air than we need to. Taking time to deep breathe, taking exercise, and trying to get more sleep can help settle our guts”.

Moreover, if you have very stinky farts, along with an appetite reduction and possibly even weight loss, it may be a sign of Crohn’s disease.

Small-intestinal bacterial overgrowth, or simply too many bacteria building up in a portion of the digestive system, might result from the disease, although there would be more symptoms to look for. These bacteria have the ability to produce smelly gas when they digest food residue, though.